The Design Studio component of the MSc City Design and Social Science involves in-depth research, analysis and proposals by students working in groups with tutors on specific urban issues and sites. An ongoing Studio programme is focused on Urban Edges, set in different urban contexts each academic year.
This year's Studio focused on 'High Street 2012', the six kilometre stretch of road running from Aldgate through Stratford, a combination of a number of local high streets that accumulate into a major urban corridor leading to the Olympic Legacy project. The area associated with High Street 2012 is currently part of major planning and design initiatives that relate to shifts in policy directions for the role of London’s high streets, as well as the substantial, planned regeneration of London’s East End. Students worked together in groups to analyse their stretch of street, and to propose strategies for intervention. Their work is the basis for this year's Studio publication City Street (see PDF below).
Last year (2009-10) the focus was on the areas surrounding East London's massive Olympic Park development: Hackney Wick, Fish Island, Sugarhouse Lane, Carpenter's Estate, Stratford Town Centre and Leyton. How will they benefit from the regeneration projects promised for this largely deprived part of London? Students suggested some interventions, emphasising the role small, local projects could play in the growth and change of the Olympic fringe sites.
In 2008-09, the City Design Research Studio centred on Bishopsgate, on London's city fringe. In 2007-08 the Studio theme was urban development on the inner/outer city edge - looking at Barking and Dagenham in East London within the larger Thames Gateway context. In 2006-07 the central theme was Housing and the City, with a focus on Southwark: the students' original research on housing history fed into the catalogue for Home/Away, the British Pavilion at the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2005-06, the Studio focused on the Land Securities development of Bankside 123, designed by Allies and Morrison Architects, and sited behind the Tate Modern.
Annual publications (PDFs)
Each year, the Studio work is published as a book. See links below for the electronic version of all six publications(separate PDF for each chapter), starting with the latest:
City Street (PDF)
MSc City Design and Social Science 2010-11